He showed up to Vegas filled out in the upper body and then proceeded to be a man among boys averaging 18.8 points on 56.1 percent shooting with 10 rebounds and almost one block a game. He isn’t just bullying his way to the rim, he has shown patient moves, improved footwork, the ability to score with jump hooks, he’s got pump fakes coming out his pump fakes, and if the defense shifts he’s made some nifty passes. It may only be Summer League, but it’s been an impressive run.

Word out of Vegas last night was that they are going to shut down Jonas Valanciunas for whatever’s left of the Summer League.

The Raptors are still alive in the Summer League tournament; they play the Suns on Saturday. Win and they advance to the semi-finals, so there could be as many as three Raptors games left. Shut Valanciunas down and there is probably just one.

Valanciunas will be playing for Lithuania this summer at EuroBasket. That will be a good test as rather than playing against boys there will be some real men with size to match his bodying him up.

Raptors fans, don’t go too overboard with Valanciunas’ Summer League performance, but it’s a really good sign of his development that his body and footwork made this kind of jump.

I love Valanciunas and think he has huge upside, but with that being said, summer league game doesn’t mean anything at all. Just look at Josh Selby last year. He was a stud in the summer but was traded and then cut during the regular season

The last line is the key. Yes its nice he dominated a bunch of scrubs, but more importantly he looks bigger and has improved footwork. He plays a physical brand not normally associated with Europeans, he loves to bang. He’s the only player on the Raptors I would consider totally untouchable.

He’s a centrepiece in the middle for years to come. The Raptors are lucky that he fell into their laps on draft night 2 years ago.

In his first NBA game, you could see that at the very minimum, he was a 12 point, 10 rebound type of player who can also defend a bit, which is very good for a centre.

Now he’s turning into a 15 pt, 12 rbd player, which is exceptional for a 7 foot centre. There just aren’t many legit centres in the league who can rebound, defend, and also put up 15 points/game on a consistent basis.